Toonami
Toonami is a syndicated programming block airing action cartoons that is syndicated to local TV stations. It debuted in September 1997. History The block premiered on March 17, 1997. Toonami is a weekday afternoon cartoon and action block hosted by Space Ghost villain-turned-producer Moltar (voiced by C. Martin Croker) at the Ghost Planet Industries building from 1997 to July 9, 1999. T.O.M 1 On Saturday, July 10, 1999, the block was relaunched with a new environment, the Ghost Planet Spaceship Absolution, and a new host named T.O.M. (voiced by Sonny Strait), which introduced viewers to him with this speech: Starting in September 2000, Toonami presented special interactive events known as Total Immersion Events (TIEs). These TIEs took place both on-air during Toonami and online at the official site, Toonami.com, and always occurred the week that the block's most popular series, Dragon Ball Z, returned for a new season. The first TIE was The Intruder, which introduced T.O.M.'s companion, an AI matrix known as S.A.R.A. (voiced by Sally Timms). The Intruder was an eight episode mini-series that aired during Toonami from September 18–27, 2000. It involved the Absolution being attacked by an alien blob known only as "the Intruder", which ultimately devoured T.O.M. T.O.M. 2 Though The Intruder resulted in the destruction of T.O.M., he was soon after upgraded by S.A.R.A. from a short Bomberman-esque character to a taller, sleeker, deeper-voiced incarnation dubbed T.O.M. 2 (voiced by Steven Blum, who has since been the voice of all subsequent incarnations of the character). A Saturday morning incarnation, Toonami Rising Sun, ran from 2000 to 2003 at 9:00 am to noon. It later ran from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, then 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. T.O.M. 3 The TIE in September 2003 was a diversion from the T.O.M. and S.A.R.A. adventures and introduced a new, 2D universe. Immortal Grand Prix (IGPX), created by Toonami producers Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco, and produced by anime studio Production I.G, aired in five short installments, serving as a pilot for the second Toonami original series, which premiered in November 2005, and continues to this day. TOM 3 returned with Toonami's return in 2012 until TOM 5 in 2013. T.O.M. 4 On January 27, 2007, a teaser commercial aired during the Xiaolin Showdown marathon, featuring closeup shots of larger Clydes (the remote robot explorers that have been a fixture of Toonami since the beginning) along with the date "3/16/07" and T.O.M.'s chest emblem glowing blue. On March 16, Toonami celebrated its 10th anniversary with a new packaging and numerous montages celebrating the block. T.O.M. was revamped into a shorter robot, who was a commander of a jungle control room with a trio of new robots. The montages included a look at past hosts, former logos, and a decade's worth of clips and voice-overs from shows that aired on Toonami. There were a total of four montages, each with different clips, and three were one minute long. As part of the anniversary, Toonami planned another month of movies: * March 2 – The Invincible Iron Man * March 9 – Mosaic * March 16 – Hellboy: Blood and Iron * March 23 – Stan Lee Presents: The Condor * March 30 – Spirited Away and Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo The Ending of the first Toonami By 2008, kid's programming in the afternoon on network affiliates was being phased out for major syndicated court shows, talk shows, and game shows. As affiliates were dropping the Toonami block, Toonami started losing money, forcing Time Warner (the owners of the Toonami block) to bring the block to an end. On September 19, 2008, Toonami signed off for good. The networked version of Toonami also ended on CN the next day. The return of Toonami As the rise of more independent television stations came up, so did the demand for more programming, so fans started a campaign to bring back Toonami. Time Warner listened, and on May 28, 2012, 4 years after the ending of the first Toonami and 2 days after the networked Toonami was revived on Adult Swim, Time Warner brought back Toonami. T.O.M. 5 In 2013, six years after TOM 4, new designs for both T.O.M (a sleek, slimmer design, which bore similarities the character's second incarnation) and the Absolution were unveiled, along with the announcement that overall design of the block would be changed. It was also announced that Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone would air on March 17, and that One Piece would be added to the lineup on May 18. On March 26, it was announced that the Toonami original series IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix would return to the block on April 27. On April 27, the relaunch came to fruition, featuring an all-new design, and supporting host S.A.R.A. returning to the block after being removed in 2007 (now voiced by Dana Swanson). Infrequently, Toonami has aired reviews of video games. These reviews, delivered by T.O.M. and occasionally S.A.R.A., are relatively short and air during commercial breaks. The reviews score games on a 1-10 system: 10 signifying an excellent game, 1 signifying a very poor game. (The scoring system was originally 1-5 until 2001.) So far, three games have been given a rating not based on the 1-10 rating system. Dropship: United Peace Force for PlayStation 2 was given a "?" rating because of many failed attempts to get past Level 6, and Slender by Marc "Parsec" Hadley of Parsec Productions was also given a "?" rating because of not finding all eight pages in time, and the fright of looking at the Slender Man. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was given an "ARRRRRR!" rating presumably because it is a pirate-themed game and TOM had not yet finished it. Toonami Today In 2013, Toonami expanded to Saturday morning for stations and networks that doesn't have a Saturday morning block and doesn't feel like airing paid programming during the morning. So they brought back Toonami: Rising Sun. And that is a 3-hour block to run for the morning. Category:Television programmes in the United States Category:Television programs established in 1997 Category:Television programmes produced by Cartoon Network Category:Syndication Category:Syndicated programmes Category:Syndicated Block Category:Toonami